Footwear appliance



May 8, 1934. A. B. MERRILL El AL FOOTWEAR APPLIANCE Filed March 12, 1932 m m E n j//EZ7.5'./ EEEi// $551705 E /E1922 Patented May 8, 1934 UNITED STATES FOOTWEAR APPLIANCE Allan B. Merrill and Clarence A. Ritchie, Akron, Ohio, assignors to The B. F. Goodrich Company, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application March 12,

2 Claims.

This invention relates to footwear appliances and has for an object the provision of an appliance adapted to be attached, for example, to a sport or work shoe having one or more protruding elements on its bottom, to provide for such a shoe an auxiliary bottom which serves to guard the protruding elements and also the surface walked upon from injurious contact and which makes it easier for the wearer to walk upon hard surfaces.

Further objects are to provide for simplicity of construction and light weight of such appliance, to provide for security and convenience of its attachment and for ease of its removal, and to provide for attractiveness of its appearance.

These and further objects will be apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an appliance embodying the invention in its preferred form, the embodiment here shown being applied, for purposes of illustration, to a popular type of calked golf or walking shoe.

Fig. 2 is a vertical section of the appliance of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a bottom view of the appliance.

Referring to the drawing, the broken lines indicate a popular type of golf or walking shoe having at the bottom of its sole a plurality of calks 11', 11 for the purpose of preventing slippage on turf and the like.

For enabling the wearer to walk with facility upon such surfaces as pavements and floors without injury to the calks 11, 11 or to the surface walked upon, the appliance, according to the invention, is provided with an auxiliary sole or guard 12 comprising a supporting structure adapted to guard the calks from contact with the surface walked upon. This auxiliary structure or guard may be in the form of an apertured sole or grating, as shown, shaped and arranged so that the shoe calks lie in the apertures when the guard is applied to the shoe. Where it is desired completely to prevent contact of the calks 0 with the surface walked upon the auxiliary sole is formed of suflicient thickness so that its bottom lies below the bottom of the calks, as shown.

For detachably securing the guard to the shoe a toe cover or strap portion 13 is provided extending r0 over the fore part of the shoe and secured to the margin of the guard which latter preferably conforms at its margin approximately to the sole edge of the shoe to provide for a neat fit. An apertured reinforcing layer 14 of sheet material may be adhered to the upper surface of the guard structure 12 and the lower margin of the toe cover 13 may be secured to the sole structure between the latter and the layer 14, as shown at 15 in Fig. 2, as by adhesion or stitching or both. The guard 12 is preferably of flexible tread 1932, Serial No. 598,404

material, such as leather, fibrous material, or rubber, and the toe cover 13 may be of such flexible material as fabric, leather or rubber. If desired, the toe cover may be of elastic material, such as rubber or rubberized fabric of a suitably woven or knitted construction, to give a snug fit to the shoe and to adapt conveniently one size of appliance to several sizes of shoes.

For facilitating attachment and detachment of the appliance the toe cover may be longitudinally slit, as shown, and the divided portions may be detachably united by means of any suitable buckling device, preferably a slide fastener, as shown at 16, which facilitates a smooth drawing together of the slitted portions of the cover.

In order that the appliance may be held securely onto the shoe the toe cover preferably comprises a rear instep portion 17 secured to the auxiliary sole at a position rearward and inward with respect to the widest portion of the shoe, as shown, so that when the fastener is drawn up the appliance will be effectively held in place without requiring a strap around the heel. Thus, conven ient attachment and detachment are facilitated, and simplicity of construction and attractiveness of appearance of the article are contributed to.

If desired, the toe cover may comprise two or more spaced strap elements, but it is preferred that the upper be continuous from toe to instep, as illustrated, thus permitting, in conjunction with the slide fastener, a uniformly close fit throughout, instead of an attachment by mere localized strapping.

Variations may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as it is defined in the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. An appliance for an article of footwear having a protruding element at its bottom, said appliance comprising an apertured auxiliary sole positioned against the sole of the article of footwear with the protruding element of the latter lying in the aperture of the auxiliary sole so' that injurious contact of the element with the surface walked upon is prevented, and means for detachably securing the so positioned auxiliary sole to the article of footwear, said means comprising a longitudinally slitted toe cover of flexible material secured at its lower margin along the margin of the auxiliary sole to a position rearward and inward with respect to the widest portion of the sole of the article of footwear, and fastening means at the slit of the cover.

2. A footwear appliance as defined in claim 1 in which the fiexible material of the toe cover is elastic and the fastening means at the slit of the cover comprises a slide fastener.

ALLAN B. MERRILL. CLARENCE A. mm. 

